Skinner's Theory Research Articles

Innovative Behavior of Telematics Creative Community in Interaction Dynamics(Study of Innovation Activists in Creative Telematics Community in Malang City, Indonesia)

The idea of ​​this research began with the attention of various parties to the existence of a creative telematics community, especially in the Malang city area, and its emergence as a response to advances in digital technology. The problem that deserves to be revealed lies in the ability of telematics activists to innovate and build interactions in the internal and external environment. The creative telematics community that operates within the scope of the ICT-based creative economy (information and communication technology), is a phenomenon that is able to provide new stimuli for existing social changes, namely by placing intellectual capital as the main input in the form of creativity or innovation. The research was carried out in an effort to obtain a real picture of research questions regarding: (1) how does innovation behavior proceed in the internal and external environment of the telematics creative community? (2) What factors support and hinder the innovative behavior of the telematics creative community? On that basis, the main purpose of this study is to determine the behavior of innovation in the dynamics of the interaction of the creative telematics community in the city of Malang. In particular, it is expected to challenge Skinner's theory of social behavior. Substantially, it also provides a discourse about the existence of the creative community of telematics in Malang. By setting these objectives, this study uses a qualitative descriptive method. The main purpose of this study is to determine the behavior of innovation in the dynamics of the interaction of the creative telematics community in Malang. In particular, it is expected to challenge Skinner's theory of social behavior. Substantially, it also provides a discourse about the existence of the creative community of telematics in Malang. By setting these objectives, this study uses a qualitative descriptive method, and on that basis, the main purpose of this study is to determine the behavior of innovation in the dynamics of the interaction of the creative telematics community in Malang. In particular, it is expected to challenge Skinner's theory of social behavior. Substantially, it also provides a discourse about the existence of the creative community of telematics in Malang. By setting these objectives, this study uses a qualitative descriptive method, and to obtain the depth of analysis, the phenomenological method developed by Schutz was used and strengthened through Husserl's idea, which is to try to reveal about social awareness originating from individual experience, and having a relationship with innovation behavior in the dynamics of the interaction of the creative telematics community. The research results can be formulated including: (1) The creativity of telematics activists in the city of Malang is able to develop a relationship formula based on the intensity of information exchange through forums initiated by telematics activists, both formally and non-formally; (2) The emergence of innovative behavior in the life of the creative telematics community, not only bringing up thematic aspects but is a socio-cultural process formed through a social learning process; (3) Innovative behavior in the dynamics of the creative telematics community, has combined conventional approaches and optimization of renewable technology tools, by prioritizing the building of sustainable relationships; and (4) Factors that support and inhibit innovation behavior, dominantly emerge from within the telematics activists, with behavior that tends to be in situations that are actually faced and felt by the creative telematics activists themselves.

Actualization of Behavioral Theory in Learning Arabic Speaking Skills at the Madrasah Aliyah Level

This article discusses the actualization of Skinner's behavioral theory in relation to learning Arabic speaking skills. The object of research is the book Teori Belajar dan Pembelajaran by Baharudin and Esa in 2015. This book is the main reference in studying learning theories. This study aims to describe the actualization of behavioral theory in learning Arabic speaking skills at the madrasah aliyah level. This research is a library research using a descriptive analysis method. The theory used in this research is Skinner's behavioral theory, which views that learning is a change in behavior caused by a stimulus. This theory needs to get a new offer in its actualization; this is because the learning process is still fixed on the factors of mere cognitive ability. The research technique used in this study is data collection techniques through exploration and research of book sources or journal articles or sources of writing related to the object of this research. Based on the results and discussion, it can be concluded that the actualization of behavioral theory in learning Arabic speaking skills can be done by applying bi'ah lughawiyah (Arabic environment), increasing the use of Arabic as a means of communication, and the use of interactive media in the learning process.

МЕХАНИЗМ МОТИВАЦИИ ИНТЕЛЛЕКТУАЛЬНОЙ АКТИВНОСТИ ПЕРСОНАЛА В УСЛОВИЯХ ЦИФРОВЫХ ТРАНСФОРМАЦИЙ

The article is aimed at improving conceptual, theoretical, methodological and applied aspects of forming the mechanism for personnel intellectual activity motivation in the context of digital transformations. The relevance of the study is confirmed by the dominance of the intellectual factor in functioning of universities' as a key one in achieving the goals of activities in the prism of digitalization. The article further developed the conceptual and categorical apparatus for the problematic of motivating personnel's intellectual activity. The importance of “intellectualizing” trends in the modern conditions of social development is determined. The fundamental principles of intellectual growth are revealed. The classification aspects of the motives that induce the employee to intellectual and innovative activities are expanded. The classification structure of motives are highlighted, which is represented by the following groups: psychological and cognitive; cognitive-intellectual; emotional and motivational; material and value; social and communicative. The conceptual provisions for the process of forming a mechanism for motivating personnel intellectual activity have been formed. A model for motivating the intellectual activity of personnel based on B. Skinner's motivational theory of reinforcement is proposed. Methodological support for creating a mechanism motivating personnel intellectual activity as a target function of management in the context of digital transformations has been developed. An algorithm for the formation of a mechanism for motivating the intellectual activity of personnel has been formed, including a set of stages with a description of the constituent elements and the processes of their implementation. The tools of the mechanism of motivating the intellectual activity of personnel, used in the management practice of a particular university, are characterized. The obtained effects from the introduction of tools for the mechanism of motivating the intellectual activity of the university staff in the form of certain motives are highlighted. This article is of particular value for the top management of universities, which need to manage the intellectual activity of staff, as well as motivate research and teaching staff in the context of global digital transformations.

NOVEL LAYLA KARYA CANDRA MALIK: KAJIAN PSIKOLOGI SASTRA DAN NILAI RELIGIUS

<p>The research aims to describe. (1) the behavior of the main characters in terms of B.F Skinner's psychoanalytic theory, and (2) the religious values contained in the novel Layla by Candra Malik. This study was analyzed using a psychology literature approach. The data sources in this study are documents, namely the Layla novel by Candra Malik and informants, namely the results of interviews with Candra Malik. The sampling technique uses purposive sampling. The technique of collecting data uses the technique of reading and recording. Validity test uses theory and source triangulation. The technical analysis of the data used is flow analysis of analysis which includes data reduction, data presentation, and drawing conclusions. The results of this study are as follows: (1) the behavior of the main character in this novel responds to the stimulus given by the supporting character, which is a positive response in the form of pleasure, admiration, respect and love, while the negative response is anger, disappointment, sadness, and despair. (2) Religious values contained in the novel include five aspects, namely dimensions of belief, worship, appreciation, knowledge, and practice.</p>

Exploration and Practice of Postgraduate Academic Meeting for Innovation and Expression Ability Cultivation

The establishment of an academic platform is crucial for graduate education. This paper explores and practices the conference from four aspects: enhancing the critical thinking ability of graduate students, writing and oral expression skills, communication skills and the enthusiasm of graduate students to participate in the conference. This paper mainly has the following contents: Organizational Link Design, Teacher-student participation model research, Review indicator system and measurement research, Incentive design, Design of academic exchange platform. In the conference participation mode, the teacher and the students participate together, and the students are the main participants of the conference; in the evaluation index system and the measurement research, the combination of qualitative and quantitative research is adopted. In qualitative evaluation, it evaluates from six aspects: the topic selection, verbal ability, article normativeness, article innovation, written expression ability and communication ability. In quantitative evaluation, it is reflected in the final “level” of the paper. In the design of the incentive method, based on Herzberg's two-factor theory and Skinner's reinforcement theory. In the design of the academic communication platform, the combination of online and offline is adopted. The results showed that the design for the academic conference is successful. However, it should be enhanced on paper reviewing process when the next meeting is prepared because some graduate students are not so much experienced on reviewing manuscripts.

Verbal Development, Behavioral Metamorphosis, and the Evolution of Language.

Building on Skinner's theory of verbal behavior, research over the last few decades confirmed verbal speaker operants, added the role of the listener, added the identification of speaker and listener interaction between and within individuals, and identified verbal behavior developmental cusps. Meanwhile, comparative biology focused on how and why language evolved in Homo sapiens. Findings about differences in behavior that neurotypical children demonstrated in their verbal development, and even more so in research that identified and established missing verbal behavior cusps, suggested changes analogous to metamorphosis. These striking changes in stimulus control found in the onset of cusps from the preverbal to the fully verbal child led us to an expansion of the concept of metamorphosis from morphology to the domain of behavior. The major findings of this comparative perspective are presented here as they have led us from experimental analyses of verbal development to metamorphosis as complex verbal behavior transformation and finally to a novel hypothesis about the evolution of language based on the concepts and research described here. To our knowledge, this is the first formulation of verbal development as behavioral metamorphosis in the context of evolutionary developmental biology.

Behavioristic Theory and Its Application in the Learning of Speech

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Contributions of Skinner's theory of verbal behaviour to language interventions for children with autism spectrum disorders

ABSTRACTThe purpose of the current paper is to describe the impact of applied behaviour analysis on language treatment for children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) diagnoses. Specifically, this paper will describe Skinner's theory of verbal behaviour and its contributions to evidence-based treatments for communication deficits among individuals with ASD. Skinner's book Verbal behavior was written in 1957 but saw increased growth in research publications after its application to individuals with autism in the 1990s. Today, verbal behaviour is an accepted evidence-based practice in behaviour analysis, and mastery of Skinner's theory of verbal behaviour is required for practising behaviour analysts who teach individuals with autism. This paper describes the history of the theory of verbal behaviour, defines the key features of the theory, and presents research supporting its application to the communication development of children with autism.

La perte de l’intérêt dans l’étude de la langue française chez les étudiants universitaires au Nigéria : le cas des étudiants de l’Universityé de l’État d’Osun

Loss of Interest in Studying the French Language Among University Students in Nigeria: The case of Osun State University students
 In principle, language is an instrument of communication between communities. As the world has become a global village, we are entering an era where the future of a nation will have to be based on multilingualism, a situation with serious consequences. In view of this multilingual context, it is therefore important to learn a foreign language. Based on Skinner's behaviorist theory, this study examines the reasons or factors responsible for the loss of interest and lack of motivation to learn French among university students. The study maintains that students’ interest, motivation and satisfaction must be taken into account in school activities. Using the questionnaire for 50 students which will serve as a tool for a qualitative result, we would identify this alarming challenge among students in the French department of Uniosun. This study concludes that it would therefore be necessary to let learners in foreign language departments decide for themselves whether they want to learn French instead of forcing them to learn the language. France also has an important role in promoting its language (teaching and learning) in Nigeria.

The Impact of Gagné, Vygotsky and Skinner Theories in Pedagogical Practices of Mathematics Teachers in Brunei Darussalam

Pedagogy in a classroom is not just for the sake of teaching but it also embodies the learning process where appropriately correct conceptual knowledge is being transferred to the learners. Educational theories that we currently come to know play an important role in the effectiveness of the teaching and learning processes. In this study, the teaching practices of three Mathematics teachers in one of the secondary schools in Brunei Darussalam were observed and examined based on the work of three educational theorists, Robert Mills Gagne, Lev Semyonovich Vygotsky and Burrhus Frederic Skinner. The observational vantage points of the research focused on the learning conditions of the lesson, students’ interaction with their teachers and peers, and the teachers’ responses to their learners’ behaviour during the lesson. The qualitative reports indicated that the most commonly “not seen” events by the three teachers were gaining students attention, assessing the performance and enhancing retention and transfer; social interactions for example, discussions were absent in all three observed lessons; and all the three teachers gave some kind of reinforcements, such as praises and extra activities, during their lessons.

Worldsheet factorization for twistor-strings

We study the multiparticle factorization properties of two worldsheet theories which--at tree-level--describe the scattering of massless particles in four dimensions: the Berkovits-Witten twistor-string for N=4 super-Yang-Mills coupled to N=4 conformal supergravity, and the Skinner twistor-string for N=8 supergravity. By considering these string-like theories, we can study factorization at the level of the worldsheet before any Wick contractions or integrals have been performed; this is much simpler than considering the factorization properties of the amplitudes themselves. In Skinner's twistor-string this entails the addition of worldsheet gravity as well as a formalism that represents all external states in a manifestly symmetric way, which we develop explicitly at genus zero. We confirm that the scattering amplitudes of Skinner's theory, as well as the gauge theory amplitudes for the planar sector of the Berkovits-Witten theory, factorize appropriately at genus zero. In the non-planar sector, we find behavior indicative of conformal gravity in the Berkovits-Witten twistor-string. We contrast factorization in twistor-strings with the story in ordinary string theory, and also make some remarks on higher genus factorization and disconnected prescriptions.

A brief review and update of mode deactivation therapy.

Adolescence is a difficult period for any individual. Hormones, peer relations and emotional development rarely mix smoothly. According to domestic violence statistics over 10 million children are witness or victims of abuse (Linehan, 1993) as cited by the website domesticviolencestatistics.org (2014). These individuals find adolescence explosive and volatile. As men, the boys are twice as likely to become the abuser. Anxiety, Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (ptsd), physical aggression and inappropriate sexual behavior would become the behavioral expression of their misaligned emotional states (Bass & Apsche, 2013). These adolescents enter the system with a diagnosis of Conduct Disorder or Oppositional Disorder (Hollman, 2010). Rarely has a youth entered the juvenile justice system or therapy voluntarily; it is usually court ordered. For many therapists the goal is to simply manage their anger and re-direct the behavior; the first of these treatments is behavioral based. In 1996, Aaron Beck developed the concept of Modes or core beliefs that impacted psychological functioning (Hollman, 2010). Beck posited that people learned from unconscious experiential components and cognitive structural processing components. Unconsciously a belief would be held internally and could activate anger and aggression, especially during interpersonal situations. In a study of over 500 males diagnosed with Conduct Disorder or Oppositional Conduct Disorder, 90% had personal history of sexual, physical and emotional abuse. This victimization altered their real world response to interpersonal situations (Hollman, 2010). A touch can be interpreted as an attack sparking inappropriate responses. Deviant and sexual behaviors are dysfunctional due to dysfunctional modes or schemas and in order to change a person's behavior, the experiential components have to be restructured (Apsche & DiMeo, 2010). By ending the dysfunctional behaviors and habitual responses and replacing them with self-awareness, acceptance and regulatory skills, this violent adolescent male population can recover (Hollman, 2010). This article will examine the third wave treatments and their effectiveness across various populations. The third wave therapies are defined by their nonjudgmental approach to the thoughts, feelings and behaviors found in vulnerable population. * Third wave therapies Treatments like Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), Functional Analytic Psychotherapy (FAP), and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (act) were the beginning of what is now termed the third generation of treatment (Hollman, 2010). Founded by Robert Kohlenberg and Mavis Tsai, Functional Analytic Psychotherapy (FAP) is a behavioral approach to therapy (Kohlenberg, 2012) and was based on B.F. Skinner's theories on human development (Bowen, Haworth, Grow, Tsai, & Kohlenberg, 2012). Its focus is on implementing a close and intense relationship between the therapist and the client. Its purpose is to treat the functional, contextual, analytical modes of human development while producing an intense personal therapeutic relationship (Bowen, et al, 2012). The core condition that FAP clients present are within the presence or lack of human relationships. In FAP, the therapeutic relationship is the healing vehicle for the patient. The therapeutic relationship consists of a sacred space, awareness, courage and love. The overall intent is to increase personal closeness with others through experiential skills teaching (Bowen, et al, 2012). Since avoidance of openness and honesty in interactions with others is a major problem associated with interpersonal relationships, the client is encouraged to overcome the avoidance by taking a risk and being open and honest with others. Overcoming avoidance is accomplished through mindfulness training (Bowen, et al., 2012). By teaching the client to be aware of their thoughts and that they are only thoughts, the automatic maladaptive pattern can be shifted to a new perception and the client's behavior is decentered (Bowen, et al. …

Bridging the positions of Rogers and Skinner: The role of nonlinear dynamic systems

This paper aims to bridge the gap between the positions of Carl Rogers and B. F. Skinner by demonstrating that they are not as antithetical as they are ordinarily assumed to be, and as the two men themselves tended to think. The author uses the concept of nonlinear dynamic systems as the principal concept in her effort to bridge the gap between the work of Rogers and Skinner and consequently introduces the concept of nonpredictivity to replace the concept of nondirectivity as being a more correct and basic characterization of classical client-centered therapy. The concept of nonpredictivity allows client-centered therapy to be framed, in an overarching and general way, by B. F. Skinner's principle of operant conditioning without doing violence to Rogers' concern about client autonomy. More specifically, the paper argues that Rogers' theory of therapy is not antithetical to Skinner's theory of personality and that client-centered therapy therefore can be practiced seamlessly by therapists who, like the author, believe that operant conditioning is a better explanatory concept for human behavior than the actualizing tendency.

Effects of multiple exemplar instruction on transformation of stimulus function across written and vocal spelling responses by students with autism.

Introduction According to Skinner (1957), speaking and writing are different kinds of verbal operants that initially must be conditioned (p. 191). Skinner (1957) proposed that words that occur in written form are functionally independent of vocal form of word. He refers to this as same response in different media (p.191). On this topic, Skinner wrote: But speaking and writing are obviously different kinds of behavior, which utilize different parts of body in different ways. Where we could paraphrase the word used in different ways as the response in different types of operant, here we must attempt to bridge gap between spoken and written behavior either by pointing to something common to occasions upon which behaviors occur or among effects which they have upon listener and reader. But common controlling variables, action either prior to behavior in stimulation occasion or after behavior as part of event called reinforcement, will not permit us to get from one form of response to other. The two forms of behavior must be separately conditioned. (p. 191) Consistent with Skinner's theory, several types of verbal operants are initially independent including: mands and tacts (e.g., Lamarre & Holland, 1985; Hall & Sundberg, 1987; Twyman, 1996; Williams & Greer, 1993), listener and speaker (Horne & Lowe, 1996), and written and spoken (Greer, Yuan, & Gautreaux, 2005). Recent research reported effectiveness of multiple exemplar instructional methods in joining separate verbal operants to a single controlling stimulus, such as with listener and speaker (Horne & Lowe, 1996; Fiorile & Greer, 2007; Greer, Stolfi, Chavez-Brown, & Rivera-Valdez, 2005; Pistoljevic, 2008), and with written and spoken (Greer, Yuan, et al., 2005). Similarly, Nirgudkar (2005) and Nuzzolo-Gomez & Greer (2005) joined single to control of different establishing operations for mand and tact operants as a function of multiple exemplar instruction (MEI) across establishing operations. According to Greer & Ross (2008) MEI) (also known as multiple exemplar training or MET) has been described in literature in two ways. In one use of term (also called general case teaching), MEI refers to a tactic in which different examples of stimulus are presented when teaching generalization or abstraction (e.g., Hughes & Rusch, 1989; Sprague & Horner, 1984). For example, teaching textual to phonemes across multiple exemplars results in emission of accurate textual to novel words (Engelmann & Carnine, 1982). In another usage, MEI refers to a tactic used to bring independent operants (e.g., writing, spelling aloud, and textually responding) under joint stimulus control for novel stimuli by rotating different to a single stimulus in instructional sets (Greer, Yuan, et al., 2005; Fiorile & Greer, 2007; Greer, Stolfi, et al., 2005). That is, the manipulation of initially independent response topographies with stimulus may generate joint stimulus control such that a single stimulus can evoke both responses (Greer, Yuan, et al. p. 100). In study described herein, latter description of MEI applies. Greer, Yuan, et al. (2005) tested effect of MEI across written and spoken in instructional sets on acquisition of untaught spelling in vocal or written form, for four young children, using a delayed multiple probe design. After an initial test showed that participants could not spell three sets of five words, participants were taught to spell Set 1 words in one response form (either vocal or written), and after achieving mastery in taught form, probes were conducted on untaught form. …

Four Senses of 'Meaning' in the History of Ideas: Quentin Skinner's Theory of Historical Interpretation

AbstractAt least four different senses of 'meaning' need to be kept separate when describing the proper way to do the history of ideas. The first sense, communicative meaning, relies on the communicative intentions of the author and is very close to H. P. Grice's 'nonnatural meaning'. The second sense, meaning as significance or importance, is close to Grice's "natural meaning," but I focus on a type that depends on human interests; in this sense, meaning as significance is always relative to a person or group and changes as the events or the interests of the person or group change. I show that Quentin Skinner in his classic article, "Meaning and Understanding in the History of Ideas," confuses these senses. While historians of ideas often focus on identifying communicative meaning, what historians care most about is the significance or importance that something had for people in the past or in the present.

Contextualism: From Modernist Method to Post-analytic Historicism?

AbstractThis article provides a critical history of the Cambridge School of intellectual history. Laslett's work on Locke appeared to vindicate modernist historicism. Laslett shunned the broad narratives of romantic developmental historicists. He relied on bibliographies, unpublished manuscripts, and other evidence to establish atomized facts and thus textual interpretations. Pocock and Skinner's theories defended modernist historicism. They argued historians should situate texts in contexts and prove interpretations correct by using modernist methods to establish empirical facts. They attacked approaches that read authors as contributing to perennial debates or aiming at a coherent metaphysics. I argue we should reject modernist historicism with its methodological focus; we should adopt a post-analytic historicism focused on philosophical issues arising from analyses of the human sciences as studying actions by attributing meanings to actors and showing how these meanings fit into larger webs of belief.

Effects of conditioning reinforcement for print stimuli on match-to-sample responding in preschoolers.

Introduction One of the major challenges in the fields of education, psychology, and speech therapy is to develop science based research procedures to teach children with language disabilities how to acquire repertoires for learning more complex verbal skills. Keohane, Delgado, and Greer (2008) argue that the foundations for the development of early verbal language in children consists of child's observing responses such as looking, listening, tasting, smelling and touching. When observing responses such as looking and making sustained eye contact with adults and other visual stimuli do not function as conditioned reinforcement for children, these children fail to develop correspondence between what they hear and see concurrently. Moreover, children that lack these conditioned reinforcers for observing responses are likely to find it difficult, if not impossible, to learn more complex skills such as language acquisition, generalized matching and becoming more aware of different stimuli in their environment. Children with disabilities often have difficulty attending and discriminating among the relevant properties of stimuli to master both basic and generalized matching. Greer and Ross (2008) based on Skinner's (1957) theory of verbal behavior identified this deficit (lack of observing/attention to instructional) stimuli as developmental capability or Drawing on Ruiz and Baer's (1997) treatment of the acquisition of critical repertoires as behavioral developmental cusps, Greer and Ross summarized body of research that they argue identify several verbal developmental They suggest that these building blocks make it possible for children to learn listener and speaker responses and the joining of listener and speaker repertoires that make progressively more complex verbal behavior possible. Ruiz and Baer characterized developmental cusp as a special instance of behavior, change crucial to what can come next.... (p. 533). Several years earlier Staats (1968, p. 267) suggested something like behavioral developmental cusps. Several verbal developmental cusps and stages have been identified in the research literature and described as verbal developmental capabilities. The very earliest foundations for verbal development include cusps that consist of conditioned reinforcement for observing responses (Dinsmoor, 1985; Donahoe & Palmer, 2004; Greer & Ross, 2008) Recently, Keohane, Greer, & Ackerman (2006), tested the effects of conditioning sustained eye contact with three-dimensional (3D) objects (Visual Tracking Protocol) on the acquisition of matching responses for participant for whom looking at or observing 3D instructional stimuli on table that were not reinforcers for visual observing responses. They found that when 3D stimuli were paired with unconditioned reinforcers (e.g. food) until the 3D stimuli alone reinforced observing, the participants' mean-learn-units-to criteria dramatically decreased for learning match-to-sample instruction, and also his attending skills increased. The stimuli were conditioned as reinforcers for observing after the stimulusstimulus paring, which resulted in significant decreases in the numbers of learn units the participants required to master visually related instructional material. The significant acceleration in rate of learning for these participants suggest the role of conditioned reinforcement for observing responses as developmental cusp, since the participants could learn discriminations they could not learn prior to intervention. The newly conditioned reinforcers for observing responses constituted acquisition of developmental cusp. Keohane, Delgado, and Greer (2008), surmised that observing responses in children are tied to and are result of conditioned reinforcement for observing. When child is missing this capability, experimentally based conjugate reinforcement procedures or stimulus-stimulus pairing procedure can be used to induce conditioned reinforcement for observing responses for print and 3D instructional stimuli. …

Sobrevivência ou colapso? B. F. Skinner, J. M. Diamond e o destino das culturas

Um dos aspectos mais interessantes e polêmicos da obra de B. F. Skinner é sua interpretação sobre a evolução das culturas. De acordo com o autor, as conseqüências de práticas culturais retroagem sobre as culturas, no sentido de aumentar ou diminuir suas chances de sobrevivência. O livro "Colapso", do biólogo e geógrafo norte-americano Jared Diamond, apresenta semelhanças marcantes com a teoria de Skinner, evidenciando que as conseqüências de práticas culturais têm influência decisiva sobre o destino das culturas. Este artigo busca detalhar tais semelhanças, argumentando que o livro de Diamond serve como complemento à teoria skinneriana, pois ilustra com exemplos concretos as afirmações gerais de Skinner sobre a evolução das culturas e, com isso, confere-lhes maior clareza e credibilidade.

Apport des thérapies cognitivo-comportementales dans le sevrage tabagique

Behavioural therapies have been developed on the basis of Pavlov's and Skinner's learning theories. They have recently benefited from advances in the understanding of information handling and the organisation of perceptions of experience. It is for these two reasons that these treatments are called cognitive behaviour therapies (CBT). They have now achieved an important role in the treatment of addictions including tobacco smoking. Currently CBT's are seen as promising because they rely on cognitive restructuring combined with learning of new behaviour while following a process appropriate to the changing dynamic of the smoker. They have recently been recognised as of grade A effectiveness by the French Institute of Medical Research and may be recommended to all smokers whose primary intention is to stop. The establishment of a collaborative rapport and a therapeutic attitude are essential. They may be used during the three stages of cessation: preparation, stopping, and the prevention of relapse. A personalised functional analysis provides the patient with a management program using behavioural and, above all, cognitive techniques. The ideal is to combine a pharmacological and an optimised cognitive-behavioural approach. The management of smoking patients has advanced with the understanding of a very complex problem, often associated with anxiety-depressive co-morbidities and other addictions. Tobacco specialists, psychiatrists, cognitive-behavioural therapists and addiction therapists must work together in the future, particularly in respect of research protocols. Cognitive-behavioural therapy is a useful technique in the personalisation and optimisation of management of the patient, particularly in the prevention of relapse. However, the evaluation of CBT is difficult methodologically and there are few studies evaluating CBT alone. On the other hand, CBT is effective, particularly where there are anxiety or depressive co-morbidities or other addictions that are found more and more frequently during consultations for tobacco smoking.

The role of different social reinforcement contingencies in inducing echoic tacts through motor imitation responding in children with severe language delays.

One of the major challenges that special educators are presented with when working with children with developmental disabilities is teaching vocal communication skills to nonvocal children. About 50% of children with autism do not display functional speech and they require intensive behavioral interventions to acquire an effective communication system (Whetherby & Prizant, 2000; Williams & Greer, 1993). Skinner in his book Verbal Behavior (1957) identified several verbal functions distinguished by the occasions in which they occur and the consequences they produce. The three verbal operants directly or indirectly related to this study are the echoic, the mand and the tact. Echoic verbal behavior is defined as the verbal response under the control of verbal stimuli that generates a sound pattern similar to that of the stimulus (Skinner, 1957). For example, after an adult says cat, a child responds, cat. The critical characteristic of echoic verbal behavior is the point-to-point correspondence between the verbal stimulus and the response, as well as the temporal relation between the stimulus and the response (later reproduction of overheard speech is not echoic behavior). Another critical characteristic is that the reinforcer for the tact is a generalized reinforcer that is typically social in nature (Greer & Ross, 2008). The mand is a verbal operant that specifies its reinforcer, under the functional control of relevant conditions of deprivation or aversive stimulation. For example, the response I want is evoked under conditions of deprivation from water and specifies to the listener that water will be an effective reinforcer. The tact is controlled by a nonverbal discriminative stimulus (an object, event or property of an object or event) and is reinforced by a non-specific generalized conditioned reinforcement, such as attention, praise or repetition of the response (Stafford, Sundberg & Braam, 1988). For example, a child says, airplane in the presence of an actual A listener consequates this response saying, that's right, it is an airplane. Skinner's (1957) theory of verbal behavior gave rise to empirical research that investigated the verbal operants he identified and led to the development of applied instructional tactics and curricula. Whetherby and Prizant (2000) described a shift from highly structured discrete trial training curricula (Lovaas, 1977) to contemporary applied behavioral analysis approaches, which incorporate the environmental variables that control verbal behavior on a moment-to-moment basis (i.e., deprivation, satiation, aversive stimulation conditions, generalized social reinforcement, stimulus control, history of the organism, natural context in which communication occurs) (Greer & Ross, 2008; Hall & Sundberg, 1987; Hart & Risely, 1974; Partington & Sundberg, 1998). However, one need not wait for naturally occurring conditions to evoke verbal operants, since recent work has shown that the motivating conditions can be designed, thus ensuring many more opportunities to acquire the verbal operants (Fiorile & Greer, 2007; Greer & Ross, 2008; Pistoljevic & Greer, 2006; Schauffler & Greer, 2006) Williams and Greer (1993) introduced the echoic to mand and the echoic to tact teaching operations for verbal behavior, where the student has to emit a certain number of echoic responses before being presented with opportunities for independent responses, mands or tacts. During the echoic to mand procedure, the therapist creates momentary deprivation states from preferred items, through a choice component (two preferred items are introduced at the same time). During the echoic to tact procedure, correct tacting of non-preferred items results in a generalized reinforcer (e.g., token or praise) and/or the opportunity to mand a preferred item. Establishing operations or motivative variables, such as deprivation, satiation or aversive stimulation play a critical role in the acquisition of mands (Michael, 1982; Michael, 1983; Michael, 2000; Skinner, 1957). …